What We Do in the Shadows - Binary Opposites/Narrative Codes

 

Binary Opposites:

- Slave vs Master

   Nandor is one of the 4 main characters of the show, being 1 in 3 main vampires. The 4th main character represents a male human called Guillera who seeks to earn vampire powers by serving under Nandor as a human slave/assistant. We see many exchanges between them through Nandor's superior attitude to him, ordering him around and rewarding him as a master would reward their slave. Although this is what is seen on the outside for this pair, Nandor does seem to care about Guillera as he seems to appreciate their time together.

- Modern vs Old

Near the end of the first episode, we are introduced to a new character, who has the ideals of the old age, where peace is not an option whereas conquest and power is everything. This is Baron Afanas, a Victorian-age vampire who still seeks to create a world dominated by vampires. The main characters however, share a different intentions to this being as they are more focused on personal goals and conflicts rather than the domination of the world that the Baron seeks.

- Supernatural vs Natural

 The concept of this show includes the differences between vampires and humans, thus the opposites of Supernatural vs Natural. It shows how different these two groups can be, and the difference in their power through how the vampires hunt down humans for nutrition. etc. There is also a nod to this opposite that describes a supposedly natural trait supernaturally. We can see this through a character that lives in the same house as the main characters, Collin, who seems like he would just be a normal human, as he does not have any traits of the average vampire such as their weakness to the sun, their tendency to drink blood and even the way he behaves or dresses, rather he is called a vampire but gains energy/nutrition through feeding on other peoples' energy by engaging in boring conversations and bringing the mood of the room down - "draining their energy". He is also able to use this 'power' on vampires, which makes him seem all the more natural yet acknowledged by the vampires as supernatural.

Narrative Codes:

- Proairetic Code: Proairetic code refers to an action that implies further narrative action. This is seen in the episode as Nadja stalks the human called Jeff, implying further involvement of this new character in Nadja's life, Guillermo's desire to become a vampire, implying how he may continue to strive for this goal, etc.

- Hermeneutic Code: Hermeneutic code is something that is unexplained which leaves the audience wondering. This is seen as Nandor keeps delaying the opening of the letter and insisting in going into a certain room to discuss it, where we slowly become more and more eager to find out what's in it.

- Semantic Code: Semantic code refers to an element of the media that seems to have a hidden meaning to it. This is connotated in the series through the vampires' speech and mannerism, which does not seem to be natural to their surroundings, implying that they do not belong there, and are perhaps outsiders inhabiting the area.

- Symbolic Code: Symbolic code is a symbol that explains something to the audience without it being said, such as a specific choice of clothing, expression, etc. It is heavily used in this series using the stereotype of vampires such as the use of cloaks, dark colored clothing, dark houses/rooms, medieval style infrastructure, fangs, hissing, etc.

- Cultural Code: Cultural codes are tropes that are relevant to certain cultures or groups. The cultural code used in this series would be the group known as vampires. They have been represented in media quite often and so the audience is used to seeing them, thus having an idea of what they look like and how they behave.